Rostam Batmanglij, born November 28, 1983, is a producer and multi-instrumentalist of New York-based indie rock band Vampire Weekend and co-founder of electro-soul group Discovery.
Batmanglij grew up in Washington D.C. His mother is the distinguished Persian cookbook author Najmieh Batmanglij while his father is a publisher. His parents are both Iranian and arrived in D.C. ahead of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Batmanglij met the members of Vampire Weekend while attending Columbia University, where he majored in music. They started the group in their senior year. The name of the group comes from the movie of the same name that Ezra Koenig and his friends made over summer vacations. (http://vimeo.com/28464) They self-produced their first album after graduation while concurrently working full-time jobs. Batmanglij primarily plays multiple instruments in the band but also acts as a lyricist, co-writing the song "Diplomat's Son" on Contra. Bandmate Ezra Koenig has described himself and Batmanglij as "the two main songwriters in the band."
Batmanglij began recording with Ra Ra Riot vocalist Wes Miles in a project which was to become the electro-funk group Discovery. They released their debut album LP on July 7, 2009 on XL Recordings. The album features guest vocal contributions from Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig and Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian.
In 2010 Converse released "All Summer", written by Batmanglij and featuring himself along with Kid Cudi and Bethany Cosentino from Best Coast.
Rostam also releases solo work under the name Boys Like Us. He also works as a producer under the name ROSTAM, and has produced the track "The Trick" on the Das Racist album, Relax.
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